musings from a nomadic miner

Bubble Burst

Part due to not really knowing what to write and part fearing to write. You have probably heard it in the news, seen it in the stocks and (if you’re in WA) talked about the impact. Iron Ore has bottomed out; the bubble has ‘burst’ a little bit…

And down down down it goes

Pretty much since I started I have been getting almost weekly questions about how safe my job is, am I worried? Are people getting sacked? And up until now I have laughed it off as fear mongering, its business as usual up north – nothing to worry about.

I’ve been sitting quite nice, clean inside an office with my shiny bum for the past 18months, I have loved the fact that I was being told I would never have to operate machinery in the pit ever again, but it’s handy that I have the skills. Projects were my future and they had big plans for my future in the company…. Not so much anymore….

The fact that I can operate equipment has quite literally saved my job. In the past 3months the office has dwindle to a scene where a tumble weed blowing through would not look out of place- ‘eerily quiet’ is a word that has bandied about.
My fall from ‘grace’ has not been too severe, now having to split my time between pit and projects is not so bad. Particularly when the funding for all said projects have been cut.

And by all means no one is holding a grudge that jobs had to go, fat had to be cut. This is a business and a business has to make money. It has been the way they have gone about it that, for the first time since starting I have questioned the integrity of the people I work with.
And yes silly naive girl trusting the head honchos, but up till this point I raved about the company and how they look after their staff –everything you could need is supplied to you from lunch containers to lip gloss. They have been great.

But when these same people hustle 20staff members into a room on a Thursday say that there will be cuts, that people will be losing their jobs this week…. And then tell them they will let them know Monday or Tuesday… is cruel
For a site that claims to prioritise staff health and wellbeing above all else, leaving people on edge for a whole weekend questioning their futures seems a pretty poor way to show it. Tapping someone on the shoulder 5mins before they walk out the door to fly home to let them know not to come back next week seems utterly unnecessary.